USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Curt Hogan

Eugene Levin

Joseph A Carroll

Paul Oppenheimer

Adam Thurn

Jordan R Schlater

Shannon Coffey

Ivan Galysh

A tethered spacecraft has a first endmass and a second endmass with a telescoping stacer spring and a tether arranged between the endmasses. The spring is coiled around a center rod and initially contained within a housing, the spring being biased to push the first endmass away from the second endmass. The spring housing is affixed to the first endmass, a first end of the spring being affixed to the spring housing, and tether are affixed to spring at one end and to the second endmass at the other end. A pretensioned loop holds the endmasses abuttingly together, and a burnwire release mechanism cuts the loop to deploy the spring. Upon deployment, the spring extends to its full length to form a cylindrical boom, and the endmasses continue to move outward along the spring centerline until stopped by the tether.

Separation system and burn wire release mechanism for tethered spacecraft

Growing community of inventors

Napoleon, OH, United States of America

Curt Hogan